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warrrreagl · 02-06-2005, 04:23 AM

Yesterday, my wife and I were shopping (she was trying on sweaters and I was holding her purse), when she emerged from the dressing room with an interesting thought.

"What if I came out of the dressing room and you were gone?" Since I was holding her purse, she would have found herself totally helpless. Her driver's license, cash, credit cards, and cell phone were all in the purse. I had the car keys, too. She would have been absolutely marooned in Macy's, with no way to leave and no way to call for help.

So, I started thinking about a time when I was ten years old that I had been left behind. It was probably in February and I was at the local Jr. High gym at rec-league basketball practice one night. My mother was supposed to pick me up after practice, and I stood outside the gym waiting for her. It was below freezing, and all I had on was a t-shirt, gym shorts, and gym shoes; no coat and no sweats. As each kid was picked up, I was offered ride after ride, but I knew better than to leave without my mother knowing about it. I opted to wait there for her, even though she was never, ever late. Eventually, the facilities guy locked up and left from another door, turning off all lights (inside and outside) as he left. I was standing completely alone in the dark in freezing weather and no hope of anyone else trustworthy coming by the gym that night.

Finally, over an hour later, my parents came screeching into the parking lot for me. It turns out that my father had taken the car so he could go jogging and had run into an old friend who gabbed and gabbed. He assumed one of my older siblings would have a car available to pick me up, but none of them were home, either. My mother had no way of calling anybody in the family or anyone at the gym (decades before cell phones) and all she could do was wait frantically and hysterically until someone with a car came back home.

It all turned out okay, but I was only ten, and I had some pretty freaky thoughts going through my head about being left behind as the minutes crawled by and each passing pair of headlights turned out to be somebody else.

Does anyone else have experiences about being left behind?

02-06-2005, 04:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
warrrreagl pinche vato Location: backwater, Third World, land of cotton	Have you ever been left behind? Yesterday, my wife and I were shopping (she was trying on sweaters and I was holding her purse), when she emerged from the dressing room with an interesting thought. "What if I came out of the dressing room and you were gone?" Since I was holding her purse, she would have found herself totally helpless. Her driver's license, cash, credit cards, and cell phone were all in the purse. I had the car keys, too. She would have been absolutely marooned in Macy's, with no way to leave and no way to call for help. So, I started thinking about a time when I was ten years old that I had been left behind. It was probably in February and I was at the local Jr. High gym at rec-league basketball practice one night. My mother was supposed to pick me up after practice, and I stood outside the gym waiting for her. It was below freezing, and all I had on was a t-shirt, gym shorts, and gym shoes; no coat and no sweats. As each kid was picked up, I was offered ride after ride, but I knew better than to leave without my mother knowing about it. I opted to wait there for her, even though she was never, ever late. Eventually, the facilities guy locked up and left from another door, turning off all lights (inside and outside) as he left. I was standing completely alone in the dark in freezing weather and no hope of anyone else trustworthy coming by the gym that night. Finally, over an hour later, my parents came screeching into the parking lot for me. It turns out that my father had taken the car so he could go jogging and had run into an old friend who gabbed and gabbed. He assumed one of my older siblings would have a car available to pick me up, but none of them were home, either. My mother had no way of calling anybody in the family or anyone at the gym (decades before cell phones) and all she could do was wait frantically and hysterically until someone with a car came back home. It all turned out okay, but I was only ten, and I had some pretty freaky thoughts going through my head about being left behind as the minutes crawled by and each passing pair of headlights turned out to be somebody else. Does anyone else have experiences about being left behind? __________________ Living is easy with eyes closed.